Simon Foxley took his own life in September 2011 after being bullied on Facebook

“He kept himself to himself and was very reserved about his feelings,” remembers his brother Gary, 30, a youth support worker.

“He’d never had a girlfriend, but shortly before he died he became interested in someone. Then he started getting abusive messages on social media when others found out.”

Simon’s family – parents Graham, 63, and Diane, 62, and brothers Gary and David, 24 – had no idea he was being targeted.

“I thought I really knew my brother,” admits Gary. “We had a normal life growing up. David, Simon and I swam together, played badminton and went go-karting. He was annoyingly competitive and always beating me. We used to also spend a lot of time on the PlayStation, but Simon liked his own space, too. He’d spend hours in his bedroom listening to music.

Online trolls told my brother to go and die

“In the year before he died, I didn’t spend as much time with him as I’d been away at university.

“Even so, it’s still so hard to understand why he didn’t talk to any of us.

“None of us had a clue he was depressed.”

Simon’s body was found hanging in the garden of the family home in Hyde, Gloucestershire, by his father.

“David called me at uni,” Gary explains. “He was in such a state of shock that he said very matter-of-factly: ‘Simon’s dead. You’ve got to come home.’

“It was hard to read that. You keep thinking if only he’d said something, perhaps we could have helped.”

Six years later Gary, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, is still struggling.

“Every day is hard,” he says. “Despite what they said, we had no interest in trying to track down the trolls afterwards. We knew that they would never have said such awful things to Simon face to face, which is why we just want young people to really think about the messages they send on social media and the impact they could have.

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“What’s so sad is that Simon had everything to live for.

“Weeks before he died he’d started a degree in music at The Academy of Music And Sound in Swindon.

“That’s why we need to combat this ‘masculine’ identity.

“From the moment we are born, boys are described as ‘big’ and ‘strong’. We are praised for being brave. For men, opening up about their feelings is the biggest hurdle.”

It’s clear this taboo needs to be shattered – but how?

“We need to start teaching boys from an early age about emotion, so they know how to open up if life becomes a struggle,” says Emma.

“Men have the same feelings as women, so it’s time we stopped judging them.

“People need to understand this is an epidemic we can actually do something about – so let’s start now.”

For free help and support, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit Samaritans.org.

‘I was ashamed to admit I had a mental illness’

Gary Parr, 40, is an NHS worker and lives in east London with his wife Fran, 36, an IT project manager.

He says: “I first tried to commit suicide aged 19.

“I’d had depressive feelings since I was ten, but I had never spoken about them, and when I started studying biochemistry at Royal Holloway university in 1996, life just got too overwhelming.

“I’d moved from Northern Ireland to London thinking I’d feel independent, but instead I found it hard making friends and often felt alone.

“One night I drank a lot of vodka and downed pills.

“In hindsight, it wasn’t a serious attempt, I just wanted people to know I was struggling.

“But all I ended up with was a horrific hangover and bad stomach ache.